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Is it me or my sim? (Read 1523 times)

Mar 18^th, 2008 at 10:35pm

Dr.bob7 Offline
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Cessna 172SP a true aircraft
Castle Rock Colorado

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On flight sim earlier today i planned a quickie route to check out some new scenery i downloaded my route was Telluride (KTEX) to Montrouse Regl (KMTL) Montrouse has a VOR in the airfield and Telluride is directly South I took off and tuned to the VOR set my OBS to 180 degrees, my sim kept acting funny after a few minutes or so i noticed my Distance from the VOr hadnt moved by 2 miles so i switched my corse to 360 degrees (I realized my stupid mistake, 180 degrees was shown as "from" on the indicator and switching to 360 corrected it, now right before i switched to 360 i looked at my Sim map, for some reason when i was following the 180 degree course it was taking me extremly westward. now at 360 degrees i kept on getting closerto the VOR but my Indicator showed the course was barely off to my right, when it should of been far right. I couldnt take a screenshot of this, but can anyone tell me what i did wrong?

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Reply #1 - Mar 18^th, 2008 at 11:24pm

Brett_Henderson Offline
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I'd imagine that you were experiencing magnetic variation. Take a look at this VFR sectional image.

See the compass rose around the VOR ? See how it's oriented ? The red line that I added is the 360/180 radial. That's the difference between magnetic and true north. All VORs (and runways) are oriented by magnetic north.

Take a closer look at the image and you'll see a line running very close to the red line that I've drawn. See the "11 E" ? That's a line of magnetic declination. They're used to let you know the aproximate magnetic variation. It tells you that anywhere near that line, magnetic north is 11 degrees east of true north.

What probably happened, is that you took off.. then chased the CDI needle to get on the radial. Then, when you turned north and checked the map, it LOOKED like the 180/360 radial SHOULD be off to your right, when you were actually quite close to it.

For future reference.. if there's a VOR at the field.. just spin the OBS until the needle centers with a TO indication.. then turn to the heading that matches the OBS. In this case, it would probably have been about 350.

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Reply #2 - Mar 19^th, 2008 at 7:45pm

Dr.bob7 Offline
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Cessna 172SP a true aircraft
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Thats the one thing they need to fix in flight sim, all VORs are represented as static north, I didnt think these actully varied that mcuh

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Reply #3 - Mar 19^th, 2008 at 8:38pm

Brett_Henderson Offline
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EVERY OUTER MARKER SHOULD
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They can vary by quite bit, depending where you are. In some places the variation is nothing; true and magnetic north are the same.. the line of declination would be zero.

I'm pretty sure the VORs in the sim are accurate.. even the map displays. There's a line that represents tho 360 radial. I'm not near a sim right now.. I'll check later to confirm.

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Reply #4 - Mar 24^th, 2008 at 3:20pm

Ivan Offline
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Dr.bob7 wrote on Mar 19^th, 2008 at 7:45pm:

Thats the one thing they need to fix in flight sim, all VORs are represented as static north, I didnt think these actully varied that mcuh

Vors ARE static north.

For a very in-depth discussion of the subject, read the navigation part of a good russian airliner sim. That has all the details you want and dont want to know about spherical navigation

Russian planes: IL-76 (all standard length ones), Tu-154 and Il-62, Tu-134 and An-24RV&&&&AI flightplans and repaints can be found here

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Reply #5 - Mar 24^th, 2008 at 6:11pm

Brett_Henderson Offline
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I'm not familiar with the term, "static north", as it applies to VORs.

VORs are oriented so that the 360 radial is pointed at magnetic north. And they're displayed that way on the sim's map too.

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Reply #6 - Mar 24^th, 2008 at 11:54pm

beaky Offline
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To be more illustrative:
VORs are aligned with local magnetic north, which varies depending on location... I'm guessing "static" north refers to true north, which has nothing to do with magnetic lines. The isogonic lines of magnetic force surrounding the Earth are pretty wiggly and actually move over time.

This map gives a rough idea... not even close to the lines of longitude, in most areas.

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